Delivering broad-based growth, executing on strategy

Nestle Group total reported sales increased by 2.3% to CHF 22.6 billion in Q1 2025, including impacts of -0.5% from foreign exchange movements and 0.1% from net acquisitions. Organic growth was 2.8%, in a period of fragile consumer confidence. Pricing contribution increased to 2.1% as we took pricing actions to address input cost inflation in coffee and cocoa-related categories. RIG was 0.7%, reflecting soft consumer demand and the short-term impact of consumers and customers adjusting to price increases.

Laurent Freixe, Nestlé CEO commented: “In an environment of heightened macroeconomic and consumer uncertainty, Nestlé delivered organic sales growth of 2.8%, with RIG of 0.7% and pricing of 2.1%. Growth was broad-based across markets and categories, with improving market share trends across many businesses, particularly our billionaire brands.

We have made further progress in delivering our strategy. Our ‘Fuel for Growth’ cost savings program is on track, providing the resources to help accelerate performance. In the quarter, we invested to strengthen our core business, achieved good consumer traction in the roll-out of our ‘big bet’ innovations such as Nescafé Espresso Concentrate, and saw some encouraging early improvements in our largest underperforming business cells. We are continuing to make changes throughout the organization to increase alignment and focus, with steps to harmonize our structure in Zone Europe and enhance our capabilities in R&D.

Performance in the first quarter was in line with our expectations, and our 2025 guidance remains unchanged. This is based on our assessment of the direct impact of current tariffs and our ability to adapt. The indirect impacts – on consumers and customers, as well as currencies and commodity prices – remain unclear at this stage. Overall, the situation continues to be dynamic, with heightened risks and uncertainty. Our 277,000 committed colleagues are focused on successfully executing our strategy: driving efficiencies and investing for growth to accelerate our categories and improve market share.”

Sales performance summary

*2024 figures restated following the combination of Zone North America and Zone Latin America to form Zone Americas and Zone Greater China becoming part of Zone AOA as well as Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages becoming a Globally Managed Business, as of January 1, 2025.

Financial highlights

• Delivering broad-based organic growth in an uncertain environment

• Organic sales growth of 2.8%, with real internal growth (RIG) of 0.7% and pricing of 2.1%.

Operational and strategic progress

• Good progress on strategy to accelerate category growth and improve market share
• Operational management driving broad growth across categories
• Further simplification of organization to support effective execution
• ‘Fuel for Growth’ cost savings program progressing to plan

Group Sales

By category, confectionery and coffee were the largest organic growth contributors. This growth was pricing-led, with double-digit increases in some markets. Our focus in these two categories is on smart pricing action to fully address input cost increases where possible, while maintaining medium-term consumer penetration. Where larger price changes were implemented, in some cases we saw a pronounced initial impact on RIG, which is easing as consumer behavior and the competitive environment adjust and stabilize. Outside confectionery and coffee, organic growth was more modest, but RIG was positive across all other reported categories.

By geography, all regions contributed to positive organic growth. In developed markets, organic growth was 1.6%, driven by RIG of 1.4% along with positive pricing. In emerging markets, organic growth was 4.5%, driven by pricing of 4.8%, with RIG slightly negative.

By channel, organic growth in retail sales was 2.5%. Organic growth of out-of-home channels was 6.6%. E-commerce sales grew organically by 15.1%, reaching 20.1% of total Group sales.

Zone Europe

Growth in Zone Europe was broad-based across markets and categories, in an ongoing fragile consumer environment. We delivered pricing-led growth in confectionery and coffee and RIG-led growth in PetCare. Customer negotiations to implement pricing actions were navigated with limited disruption, in a continued competitive environment. Market share trends are improving across most country-category combinations.

Segment performance summary

• Organic growth was 2.4%, comprising -0.6% RIG and 3.0% pricing.

• Reported sales increased by 2.5% to CHF 4.4 billion.

• Growth was broad-based by category and market, with the strongest contributions from Türkiye, France and Iberia while growth in Germany was negative.

• Market share gains were achieved in PetCare and coffee, with reducing losses in confectionery and food.

Key organic sales growth drivers by product category

• Confectionery posted high single-digit growth, led by pricing, with KitKat the main growth driver.

• PetCare delivered low single-digit growth, led by Purina ProPlan and Purina ONE.
• Sales in Nestlé Professional grew at a double-digit rate, driven by beverage solutions.

• Coffee posted low single-digit growth, with solid growth in Starbucks products partially offset by slower growth for Nescafé soluble as we acted on pricing.

• Infant Nutrition recorded low single digit-growth, reflecting soft category trends.

• Food saw a decline in sales, impacted by some customer disruptions.

Nestlé Romania financial results for Q1 2025

“In the first three months of 2025, the Nestlé Romania team remains consistent in its performance, reporting mid-single-digit organic growth, in line with our expectations for this period. We have brought consumers more news, both product launches and new campaigns and promotions. We continued our educational and social responsibility programs, in line with our plans for this year. All these results are backed by the sustained efforts of a strong team, ready for another successful year”, says Silvia Sticlea, Country Manager Nestlé Romania.